Buddahfan do not despair just yet. I agree he likely is not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, but Amir is what we saw last year... a high energy, hustle player that plays hard in spurts, is liked by his teamates and brings alot of passion and athletic ability. His offence is primarily as a garbage man but that's ok because the team needs a guy to do that. The biggest difference between him and Reggie on offence is Amir can finish if he gets the rebound. I believe Amir will have a good year but have never thought he would turn into a star.

Amir

I wouldn't depend on preseason to define how Amir's regular season will go. He might start off rocky, but given time there's no reason he can't expand on last season. A few easy teams (cough ...), and hopefully his confidence returns.

Wow. That's just terrible. How you gonna call out a dude like that and say he's retarded?

You say we can go back to his HS days but you provide no evidence, you just say we can go there.

You say he's been pulled for forgetting a play but so has every player on this team. Are they slow too? Does that make Andrea a vegetable?

You've made a bunch of half baked conclusions based on personal opinions and some observation. You come with no hard facts but yet you come to the conclusion that the dude is on the short bus and you create an entire post (a long one at that) to show your armchair psych diploma for what it is: rubbish.

I deliberately used a bunch of offensive language in this post because, well, fck your bllsht PC rhetoric. Some people perform well under pressure and some don't. That doesn't make them "mentally challenged." It makes them foul prone.

He may not be the best at filling into offensive schemes, but he plays the intricate angles on the pick and roll to perfection ... plus, we don't want him doing much on offense other than positioning for offensive boards, and finishing putbacks - which he does with a silky touch.

The only way to bag a classy lady is to give her two tickets to the gun show... and see if she likes the goods.

Unfortunately the conclusion that I have come to is that Johnson is mentally challenged.

This translates on the basketball court into having a low basketball IQ. This it seems to me is the main cause of his foul problem. We all know that he commits too many "dumb" or "stupid" fouls. Players with a high basketball IQ do not do this. He also has trouble understanding what he can do on defense and what he can't do on defense. Not being able to learn this also contributes to his high foul problem.

It is his mental limitations that have and will probably always greatly limit his career.

Triano has already pulled Johnson out of at least one game since he has been with the Raptors for forgetting a play. This also happened on a number of occasions while Johnson played for the Pistons.

We can go back even farther to his high school days and his attempt to get a NCAA basketball scholarship to find even more evidence of his Johnson being mentally challenged.

I have thought a bit about why Johnson did not get a chance to start in pre-season even from game one. During the first week of this season's pre-season camp Triano said that some of his players were having trouble grasping the Raptors new plays on offense. It didn't initially occur to me that Triano might have been referring to Johnson when Triano said this. Then I read an article where B. Scott decided to remove Hickson from the Cavs starting lineup because "he was not grasping the Princeton offense that Scott was installing. It then occurred to me that that is probably what happened with Johnson especially considering how well he played last April.

I just think that he was not learning the new plays so Triano put Evans in the starting lineup. Initially I objected to this but after some thought I understand why Triano did this and it seems like the best choice given Johnson's inability to learn the offense.

Johnson's inability to learn the new offense has put him back to being a garbage player.

Then after the sixth pre-season game Triano came out and said that he doesn't care if his players foul out as long as they don't give up unchallenged layups. So what does Johnson do in the seventh game vs Chicago. He fouls out in about fifteen minutes. Then in game eight he committed three quick fouls in the first half and wound up playing the fewest minutes of any pre-season game. It seems to me that he took Triano literally which again is more evidence of being mentally challenged.

It seems to me that Johnson may also be having some trouble trying to grasp the changes that Triano and Calesimo have installed on defense.

I do believe that Johnson will eventually grasp what Triano is now doing on offense and defense and will probably wind up playing much better as the season goes along. How good this will be only time will tell.

In the end it saddens me to have come to this conclusion. However, given all that I have seen and know about him as a basketball player it seems to me to be the most logical explanation of why he has never achieved the success in the NBA that was expected of him after his excellent showing in the D-league during his rookie and sophomore seasons with the Pistons. This limitation is also why I think he will probably never achieve the success in the NBA that one would expect based upon is natural basketball related athletic abilities.

This was the dumbest piece of garbage I have EVER read on any forum site. So dumb in fact, that I decided to register only to voice my opinion on how stupid this was.

"mentally challenged"?? Seriously man? Not only is this a ridiculous choice of words, based on reading your article I think it might be you my friend that is "mentally challenged". Let's leave the article writing to those who get paid, or at least have half a brain.

Let me begin by saying what it is not. It is not lack of athleticism or natural basketball physical skills

So what then is the Amir Johnson problem?

I have followed his career since he was drafted. Over the last few years I have also done some research on his high school days.

Unfortunately the conclusion that I have come to is that Johnson is mentally challenged.

This translates on the basketball court into having a low basketball IQ. This it seems to me is the main cause of his foul problem. We all know that he commits too many "dumb" or "stupid" fouls. Players with a high basketball IQ do not do this. He also has trouble understanding what he can do on defense and what he can't do on defense. Not being able to learn this also contributes to his high foul problem.

It is his mental limitations that have and will probably always greatly limit his career.

Triano has already pulled Johnson out of at least one game since he has been with the Raptors for forgetting a play. This also happened on a number of occasions while Johnson played for the Pistons.

We can go back even farther to his high school days and his attempt to get a NCAA basketball scholarship to find even more evidence of his Johnson being mentally challenged.

I have thought a bit about why Johnson did not get a chance to start in pre-season even from game one. During the first week of this season's pre-season camp Triano said that some of his players were having trouble grasping the Raptors new plays on offense. It didn't initially occur to me that Triano might have been referring to Johnson when Triano said this. Then I read an article where B. Scott decided to remove Hickson from the Cavs starting lineup because "he was not grasping the Princeton offense that Scott was installing. It then occurred to me that that is probably what happened with Johnson especially considering how well he played last April.

I just think that he was not learning the new plays so Triano put Evans in the starting lineup. Initially I objected to this but after some thought I understand why Triano did this and it seems like the best choice given Johnson's inability to learn the offense.

Johnson's inability to learn the new offense has put him back to being a garbage player.

Then after the sixth pre-season game Triano came out and said that he doesn't care if his players foul out as long as they don't give up unchallenged layups. So what does Johnson do in the seventh game vs Chicago. He fouls out in about fifteen minutes. Then in game eight he committed three quick fouls in the first half and wound up playing the fewest minutes of any pre-season game. It seems to me that he took Triano literally which again is more evidence of being mentally challenged.

It seems to me that Johnson may also be having some trouble trying to grasp the changes that Triano and Calesimo have installed on defense.

I do believe that Johnson will eventually grasp what Triano is now doing on offense and defense and will probably wind up playing much better as the season goes along. How good this will be only time will tell.

In the end it saddens me to have come to this conclusion. However, given all that I have seen and know about him as a basketball player it seems to me to be the most logical explanation of why he has never achieved the success in the NBA that was expected of him after his excellent showing in the D-league during his rookie and sophomore seasons with the Pistons. This limitation is also why I think he will probably never achieve the success in the NBA that one would expect based upon is natural basketball related athletic abilities.

This was the dumbest piece of garbage I have EVER read on any forum site. So dumb in fact, that I decided to register only to voice my opinion on how stupid this was.

"mentally challenged"?? Seriously man? Not only is this a ridiculous choice of words, based on reading your article I think it might be you my friend that is "mentally challenged". Let's leave the article writing to those who get paid, or at least have half a brain.

I just want to let you know, that Buddha is the biggest Amir Johnson fan I have ever seen. He has been posting stuff about Amir all summer (since I joined) and has an entire blog just for Amir. If HE thinks Amir has a problem, it's only because he put thought into it, and really researched this. He doesn't just post crap, that's what I've learned from my few months here